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Mozilla Location Services to replace Google’s geolocation service in Firefox

The term geolocation refers to services that determine the position of the device connecting to a service using location-based features in the world. The feature is built-in to many browsers and used on websites that benefit from those information.

Mapping services such as Google Maps or Bing Maps for instance use it for various features such as finding directions.

Firefox up until now used Google's geolocation service for that. This meant that Firefox would communicate with Google whenever you allowed a site to use geolocation in the browser.

It has been possible for some time now to switch from Google's service to Mozilla's own, but that required manipulating an entry on Firefox's about:config page. In addition, you had to enter the url of Mozilla's Location Service manually which meant that you had to know the url of it to do so.

The contract to use Google's location API in Firefox between Mozilla and Google ends in April 2015 and Mozilla seems to have made the decision not to renew it.

geolocation

The main indicator for that is a switch to the organization's own geolocation service in Firefox Nightly and Developer Edition.

You can verify that in the following way:

  1. Type about:config in the address bar and hit enter.
  2. Confirm you will be careful if a warning prompt appears.
  3. Search for geo.wifi.uri to display the preference.
  4. It should display https://location.services.mozilla.com/v1/geolocate?key=%MOZILLA_API_KEY%

As you can see from that, Mozilla's own location service is used already in Nightly and Developer editions of Firefox.

firefox location service

If you check the same on Stable, Beta or ESR versions of Firefox, you will get https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=%GOOGLE_API_KEY% as the result instead for now.

Note: it is possible to switch to Mozilla's service in those versions by replacing the value of it with the address of Mozilla's service.

Mozilla decided not to switch services in Firefox 37 or ESR 31. It is unclear right now how the organization plans to handle that with the contract running out in April and Firefox 38 hitting release not until May.

It is likely that the switch will be made in Firefox 38 even though that has not been decided or confirmed yet.

To improve the accuracy of its own geolocation service, Mozilla entered into a partnership with Combain Mobile AB to use the company's service as a fallback option if Mozilla's own location service cannot pinpoint the location with a certain level of accuracy.

Mozilla's improving its Location Service through other means as well. It released Mozilla Stumbler some time ago for Android which provides them with location information as users use the app. In addition, it is also making use of OpenCellID data.

Closing Words

The change makes sense from various perspectives. First, it improves user privacy s a native service is used instead of a third-party service. Second, it reduces Mozilla's reliance on Google in another area after deciding not to renew the search contract with the company.

It remains to be seen how well Mozilla's Location Service works in comparison to Google's. (via Sören Hentzschel)

Now You: Are you using geolocation services on your devices?

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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